Missi Pyle

Sci-fi fans everywhere remember drooling over her character, Thermian Laliari, in 1999's Galaxy Quest, the uproarious spoof on the Star Trek universe. But she's more well-known for appearing in a series of happy-go-lucky, underachieving films over the course of the last decade, such as Josie and the Pussycats (2001), BachelorMan (2003) and Bringing Down the House (2003).

Appeal

At 5'11", Missi is a whole lot of homegrown, American girl. If you're a man who loves them tall and robust, then she's the one. She has a bit of that Marilyn Monroe blonde sexiness to her, which is very appealing in a visceral kind of way. However, she doesn't have all the assets in place to truly make her a drop-dead sex bomb.

There's something a little awkward about her body and shape that give you a nagging sense that she's just shy of being a full-blown goddess. That being said, we wouldn't kick her out of bed for cracking jokes.

Success

True, Missi Pyle has appeared in tons of popular TV shows and movies, but she always seems to be in either small or inconsequential supporting roles. One would think that being in films like As Good as It Gets, Big Fish and Dodgeball would have created a bigger fan base for her. But all that may change with her future projects, especially the remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

For the time being though, she's managed to make herself a female cult icon among the fringe sci-fi and comedy crowd. Maybe she'd get more recognition if she put on the Princess Leia bikini outfit? Now there's an accomplishment we'd like to behold.

Missi Pyle Biography

Andrea Kay Pyle was born on November 16, 1972 in Houston, Texas. She adopted the name "Missi" after her parents, Frank and Linda, continually referred to her as "our little Missi" when she was a child.

Her parents divorced and her mother remarried and moved her to Germantown, Tennessee. Missi always liked play-acting as a child and, by age 13, she started auditioning for many roles at Germantown High School, one of the top three performing arts high schools in the United States.

missi pyle gets the acting bug

At the same time, Missi also began working on her singing voice. She landed lead singing/acting roles in productions of No, No Nanette and Anything Goes. Upon graduation from high school in 1991, Missi auditioned and was accepted into the prominent North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. There, she landed numerous female lead roles in Shakespearean plays.

During one of her summer breaks, Missi flew to England to advance her acting skills at the Oxford School of Drama. After she graduated in 1995, she was picked up by the Paradigm acting agency in New York.

missi pyle is as good as it gets

Missi's first brush with fame came when she played John Malkovich's wife in Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater production of The Libertine. That is where she met her husband, storyteller Antonio Sacre.

In 1996, Missi landed her first big-screen role in The Cottonwood, but her true rise to fame occurred when she got a bit role in As Good as It Gets (1997) opposite Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt and Cuba Gooding Jr. Over the next few years, Missi continued to etch her face into the public mind.

She made guest appearances on a slew of hit TV shows throughout the late '90s to early 2000s, including Mad About You, The Drew Carey Show, Friends, Ally McBeal, and Frasier.

missi pyle in galaxy quest

Her most memorable performance came in 1999 when she portrayed a wild-eyed, buxom alien creature in the sci-fi cult hit, Galaxy Quest. Her star power rose a few notches after this and she quickly became a fixture of the lighthearted movie genre. She appeared in the following comedic hits and misses: Josie and the Pussycats (2001), Bringing Down the House (2003), BachelorMan (2003), Big Fish (2003), and Exposed (2003).

In 2004, she began an affiliation with the actors in the "Frat Pack," namely Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell. She landed many roles as an idiosyncratic woman in films such as Along Came Polly (2004), 50 First Dates (2004), Soul Plane (2004), Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004), and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004).

missi in charlie and the chocolate factory

In 2005, Missi can be seen in the much-anticipated remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, opposite Johnny Depp, as well as in Just My Luck and American Crude. Missi is also a talented comedienne in her own right. She is part of the all-woman comedy troupe known as "Bitches Funny," and regularly performs with them when she is not making movies.

Missi has a cat named Chester and a dog named Saskia. She lives in Los Angeles and is currently separated from her husband.